Elder Scrolls Online Arrives April 4 For PC, June For PS4 And Xbox One

The Elder Scrolls Online will release on April 4 for the PC and Mac, Bethesda Softworks revealed this morning in a new trailer for the MMO set in the Elder Scrolls continuity. PS4 and Xbox One gamers will have to wait until June.

"War in Cyrodiil" is the title of the gameplay trailer, which is meant to showcase The Elder Scrolls Online's large-scale PvP system.

Bethesda did not give a specific date in June for the console editions' launch.

Comments

Incidently, very much looking forward to this title. The Xbox platform is yet to get a major MMO experience and there's several in the works this generation, but this one looks like the most 'traditional' MMO experience out there.

After coming from World of Warcraft, I have high expectations for this game and hope desperately that this does not disappoint!

All reactions to this game I hear seem to be either complete disinterest or 'meh'. I can't see this being an amazing game people flock to - it doesn't look like anything new or unique from all I've seen.

To this day it boggles my mind why Oblivion and Skyrim didn't have multiplayer. It wouldn't be hard to do. If they did that, instead of yet another WoW clone, I'd be far more interested. People already have too many MMO's to choose from, and TES's points that make it a success as a series
would be completely lost on an MMO, I think.

Although I've heard arguments from TES purists that the addition of multiplayer would somehow ruin the game - although if it's optional, I don't see how.

From my beta experience this is an average game made even worse by the fact that we live in Australia. While lag has generally been accepted in MMO's, in the more tradtional casting MMO's like WOW, SWTOR etc... lag has minimal effect on gameplay and you can quite comfortably play on 250-350 ping with the occasional lag spike that will make you curse.

ESO's combat system essentially means that if two people of exactly the same skill went up against each other except one was in America and one was in Australia, 9 out of 10 times the person in America with the lowest ping will win. Think of it almost like First Person Shooters. There is a reason why American servers are detested in Australia for them and it is because Americans will always have a distinct advantage in Player vs. Player combat. However while lag input was most noticeable on PVP, it was less noticeable (but still present) in PVE.

In the end however i can not see this taking off at all for quite a few reasons, mainly the no end game content which they have stated will not be in the game and has generally been one of the main reasons for keeping a subscription in a game with progression. Pretty sure it will have good sales numbers (not brilliant but good) but people will not be playing this 3 months after release, especially here in Aus.

I'd hope with the ping issue they could fix it. I don't remember where, but I read many MMO's have suffered similar difficulties but were vastly improved with a software or netcode fix. I know a lot of FFXIV ARR players have been complaining of similar issues and citing WoW (and others) as examples of games that used to have this issue but were somehow improved with a fix of some sort.

There's not a great deal you can do about it besides installing actual servers closer to the region. The data can only travel so fast. You can optimise around it and there are a few smoke and mirror tricks to make it look like there isn't lag, but really traveling at the speed of light along the path from east coast Australia to the US is always going to noticeably increase the time of a round trip.
On top of that you have to factor in that it doesn't go from your house to the US in a straight line. It's got to pass through a bunch of junk.
Most MMORPGs eventually 'solve' the issue by making region designated servers. Put all the Oceananic players on one server and they everyone on the server should face the same handicap.

This is actually one where the whole cloud side of next gen may prove itself a serious asset. I'd imagine Microsoft can deploy Australian, European, etc TESO servers relatively cheaply compared to having the publisher go out and do it on their own.

I have a funny feeling it was a more cosmetic fix - ping and latency is what it is, and the only thing that can fix it is improved connectivity (faster connections/closer servers), like you said. I just remember a fix being referred to that was put in place that made it all 'feel' a bit better, I guess.

Didn't think of the cloud side - be interesting to see how it pans out. Particularly with consoles involved and all this new much-vaunted cloud tech. I'd love for this game to be good and do well. Just have my doubts is all.

Considering they are still banging on about their "megaservers" with one in the US and one in Europe and how extremely unlikely they will have one in Asia i would say that for everyone in Asia this game will simply be infuriating to play due to latency. Again, the gameplay does not lend itself either to being able to be played effectively at high ping.

But if anyone is really desperate to play this game i would HIGHLY recommend only playing the first 30 days you get out of the box and not purchasing any 3 or 6 months game time options till you have spent at least a few weeks with it so you can see what the game will be like playing at that latency for months to come.

Yeah I want to know if they got either Sony or MS to budge on requiring paid system accounts on top of game subs. I'm going to assume no because I've not seen it mentioned since they said they were 'negotiating' on that one.

It's worth noting that Sony have been ok with DC Universe Online remaining totally free to play. If Sony were to excuse TESO I would imagine Microsoft would be forced to follow their lead. Even though they've sold 2 million XBOX One's I think Microsoft understand they're not in the position they were with the XBOX 360 where they could hold their ground on it even when the PS3 was offering it for free.

Yep. That's my biggest concern. They heard 'we want a TES MMORPG' and built this without realising most people asking for a TES MMORPG want something more like a mix between D&D and TES. TES engine played with a small party of friends. They may say they want the massive side of it but I think it relies on an unrealistic expectation that everyone plays their way. Sort of like how MMO fans always want pick pocketing, until they get it and realise it's not one sneaky thief RPing, it's a thousand griefers taking your stuff every time you stop to interact with an NPC.

I think they've done alright at face value, but I get the impression they were shocked when the WoW comparisons were considered a negative thing. Makes me really uneasy about the game. I'd hate to get in there and find out they built a WoW-like then just slapped a more action based interface on top of it.

Just think couple of TV's set up in a room 3 other mates co-oping sky rim with alcohol lots of alcohol and just gaming for hours getting off and realising that couple of hours turned into 4am this is what made borderlands so great playing alone so bit meh but add a mate or 2 and boom enjoyment went up ten fold
Would have been lost for days playing Skyrim as the single player was epic

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